Keep Christ in Christmas: Relief Society Christmas Activity

Please don't get mad at me because I'm posting about Christmas in August.  I have a perfectly good reason, I promise. You see, in our church (which is worldwide), we plan monthly activities for our women's organization, the Relief Society.  And right about now, the planning committees are starting to think about what they want to do for the big Christmas activity.  If they haven't already decided. So, I wanted to share what we did last year so I can give some inspiration to others THIS year!   If you really don't want to hear about Christmas right now, well, then, just hum and pretend you can't hear me.
Last year, our theme was "Keep Christ in Christmas".  It is so, so easy to let the worldly side of Christmas crowd out the real reason for the season, as they say.  So we centered our talks and music around this theme.
We set up our cultural hall with classic Christmas decor.  

One tradition we have is to have women in the group sign up ahead of time to be in charge of decorating a table.  They provide all the dishes, silverware, cups, etc, and any basic decorations.  We provided the tablecloths and toppers.   Every table ends up looking different, but all are decorated Christmas-y and with great care and love!

Sometimes we have them design their own centerpieces, but this year we used centerpieces to go with our theme.  We also had people bring nativity sets from home to put all over the place!
For dinner, we ordered food from a local Mexican restaurant and had dinner.  It was basically Enchiladas, chips and salsa.  Then we had brownie sundaes for dessert.
The main part of the program was a grown-up version of the Symbols of Christmas, called The Spirit of Christmas.  We used the main characters of the Nativity and talked about how the things we see all around us in the Christmas season can remind us of the Savior.
I had mini trees set up on each table, with battery operated lights for decor, but otherwise were left plain.   Each table also had a set of decorations.  As we talked about each symbol, people at each table would hang that decoration on the tree.  We had a large tree at the front of the group with larger versions of the decorations, and each speaker would hang their symbol on the tree as they spoke. For a copy of the program that we used, click here:
Note- this is adapted from another program, that was adapted from a different program, so I can't take credit here.  I just moved it around to make it work for our group.
Here's a basic overview of the symbols.

• Christmas Tree- Christ's neverending love
• Candy Cane- Shepherd's crook- Christ is the Good Shepherd
• Star- Everlasting Light of Christ
• Christmas Bow- Tied together through service and goodwill
• Color Red-  Symbolizes Love of Savior/Atonement
• Gifts- Christ is the Greatest Gift

Throughout the program, we played some short videos, sang some carols, and had a few musical numbers as well.  It was really a special night!
We sent everyone home with these wooden blocks that we made.  I designed the words and printed them on cardstock.  We painted 2x4 blocks (cut to about 4 inches) black, then Mod Podged the cardstock on top.  We finished up with some glittery ribbon from Costco.  These were fairly frugal, if a bit time-consuming, and everyone loved them!

UPDATE:  You can download the "Keep Christ in Christmas" file here. You can also hop over and see what we did last year in our "The Best Gifts" Christmas Dinner.

 If you have any questions about the program, ask away in the comments, or shoot me an email and I'll do my best to help.  I hope this gives you some ideas to make your activity meaningful, and to help you keep Christ in Christmas this year!